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| Anna Escobedo Cabral |
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| Anna Escobedo Cabral |
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Anna Escobedo Cabral is an excellent example of a modern Hispanic American success story. She has produced some mighty good fruits! She is currently Unit Chief for Strategic Communications in the External Relations Division of the Inter-American Development Bank, the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. After Hurricane Katrina, she dedicated much of her time in developing methods to help people affected by it to rebuild and manage their financial well-being and provided advice and counsel to the Treasury Department in its efforts to provide economic assistance to the devastated areas.
While taking night courses to obtain her law degree, she was named by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson as his representative to the Community Development Advisory Board to advise the Department on the use of funds, tax credits, and investment capital in distressed communities across the nation. In June of that year, she co-hosted the Pathways to Hispanic Family Learning conference with Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. The meeting resulted in a new program, led by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, that developed tools for financial literacy and provided resources to Hispanic families seeking academic success for their children
From 2003 to November 20, 2004, she was the Director of the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Latino Initiatives, where she promoted a policy to improve Latino representation in exhibits, and public programming among the Institution's 19 museums, five research centers, and the National Zoo. From 1999 to 2003, Mrs. Cabral served as President and CEO of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, DC, which partners with Fortune 500 companies to increase Hispanic representation in employment, procurement, philanthropy and governance. Under her leadership, the organization published a best practices series, and instituted a partnership with Harvard Business School to provide executive training programs in Corporate Governance Best Practices to community leaders.
From 1993 to 1999, Mrs. Cabral was Deputy Staff Director for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee under Chairman Orrin G. Hatch. In addition, she simultaneously served as Executive Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Republican Conference Task Force on Hispanic Affairs, a position she held since 1991. She managed this task force of 25 senators dedicated to ensuring that the concerns and needs of the Hispanic community are addressed by Congress through legislation.
A native of California, she majored in Political Science at the University of California, Davis, earned a Master's degree in Public Administration with an emphasis in international trade and finance from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and her Juris Doctor degree from George Mason University School of Law. She currently resides in Washington, DC, with her husband Victor and her four children, Raquel, Viana, Catalina, and Victor Christopher.
The US Congress is currently debating about how best to guarantee the security of our borders, particularly that with Mexico, and what to do with the 11,000,000 Mexican citizens currently believed to be illegally in the United States. Supporters of Mexican immigration often point out that the United States is a country of immigrants and their progeny; that our unique cultural strength is based on ethnic diversity. But while it is certainly true that many persons of Hispanic descent have contributed greatly to the growth and development of the United States, such as Anna Escobedo Cabral, it is also true not everybody who wants to move to the United States would be an asset to our society.
I discuss the plight of persons who do not have that choice elsewhere, so I don't do it here.
One of the many blessings which I and my neighbors received from Hurricane Katrina was the opportunity to socialize and discuss these and other things with the thousands of Christian (and other) volunteers at "God's Katrina Kitchen," an evangelistic activity established by Thy Word Network of Evansville, Indiana. On the subject of immigration reform, the theory seems to be that the illegal aliens are God's children too, and we should open our doors and extend the hand of friendship to everybody.
The bananas served by the Katrina Kitchen come through the port of Gulfport from southern countries. One of my neighbors is a US Department of Agriculture fruit inspector at the port. She makes sure that only good fruit gets into the United States. This seems like a good idea to me. There are people of Hispanic descent who produce marvelous fruits, like Anna Escobedo Cabral, Carlos Gutierrez and Alberto Gonzalez. We need more people like them. Lots more! On the other hand, we would do well to keep the bad fruit out. How to do that seems to be an elusive problem.
Matthew 7:17-20 seems to me to be a good criterion for planning social reform. I saw some demonstrators in New Orleans on television the other day. One of them had a sign saying "Iraq has fairer elections." That's probably true. Only living, registered Iraqis vote, only once in each election, and they are trying to choose candidates who will work to make their country better. My impression of New Orleans demonstrators is that Government money will never fix what's wrong with their city. What needs to be fixed is the attitude of the people. That's already been pretty well accomplished in Iraq. The good fruit trees there are beginning to bloom.
Some of my Katrina Kitchen friends have expressed the belief that New Orleans is better than Iraq because New Orleanians are mostly Christian and Iraqis are mostly Muslim. The general feeling seems to be that Christians are better than Muslims because Christians Accept Jesus Christ As Their Savior and Muslims don't. According to these people, salvation consists of being able to "get into heaven" after one dies. It's supposed to be pretty nice because it is inhabited only by Christians, the ones who Accept Jesus Christ As Their Savior. Everybody else, (about 80 percent or so of the entire human race) is destined for a place called "hell." In the words of comedian George Carlin, "Hell is a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where He will send you to remain and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever, till the end of time! - But He loves you!" The hell-bound are not necessarily bad people, you understand. Many of them are extremely good people! They just didn't Accept Jesus Christ As Their Savior. Maybe they didn't know anything about Jesus. Maybe they never even heard of him. Doesn't matter. The only way Jesus can save you, according to these people, is to become one of them. If you don't Accept Jesus Christ As Your Savior, you're going to hell!
That is NOT what Jesus said. Read Matthew 7:17-27 again.
The Five Pillars of Islam are: faith, prayer, self-discipline, care for one's neighbors, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. Catholics consider all of these to be good, holy and praiseworthy fruits, and see in the example of our Muslim brothers and sisters a challenge to us to be better Christians. Those who base their understanding of Islam on the actions of terrorists are as misled as the ones who base their understanding of Christianity on the actions and teachings of the Ku Klux Klan, or the Westboro Baptist Church! By their fruits shall ye know them!
One of the best examples of good fruits I saw after Hurricane Katrina was a young Mennonite lady whom I'll call Laura. She started working at the Katrina Kitchen along with some other Mennonite ladies several months previously. The others left, but she stayed (or possibly returned), truly a light before others. While other women her age were running around in ratty jeans with their underwear and bellies hanging out, Laura was simply attired in a plain, modest print dress. In the midst of young people proclaiming their independence with tattoos and hardware sticking out of their bodies, Laura maintained the symbol of her commitment to her faith community with a simple white bonnet. And in the midst of the college students' raucous "Jesus loving" contests, Laura was quietly cleaning off tables, washing dishes, serving hungry guests, quietly and humbly busy, working for the greater honor and glory of God in a way that illuminated all around her with the light of the Holy Spirit.
I almost felt sorry for Laura. It must have been difficult to be the most conspicuously abundant fruit tree in the orchard, separated from others of her faith. Mennonites derive support, encouragement and positive feedback from their communities, but Laura was alone in an alien world, a stranger in a strange land. She didn't need a tee shirt or bumper sticker to proclaim herself a Christian. It was obvious! By their fruits shall ye know them!
As I say, I almost felt sorry for Laura. But I just can't feel sorry for someone whose piety, charisma and dedication to God, especially at such a young age, set a standard compared to which I shall ever be found wanting. If I ever get into heaven, it will be because of the example of people like Laura.
Anna Escobedo Cabral carries a US passport, which proves that she is a US citizen. Similarly, Laura has proof of her citizenship in the Kingdom of God by the criteria established by Jesus himself, that we love one another John 13:34, 35; 15:12, 17. She is also promised the reward of being his followers reported in Matthew 25:31-46.
As far as the illegal immigrants are concerned, part of the problem is that US citizenship is a free gift. No one has a right to be or become an American citizen, or can do anything, by himself, to become one. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are Citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." I would like to see an amendment adding the words "of mothers who are citizens thereof" after the word "born," but that is not now a requirement. Nowadays, if your Mexican mother sloshed across the Rio Grande and gave birth to you on this side of the border, you can claim US citizenship if you are caught here sometime later. In such a case, American citizenship is a gift of your mother and the US Government.
There are also various ways Mexicans can become naturalized American citizens, but they are subject to change by Congress at any time. (Watch this space, folks!) Naturalization is therefore a free gift of Congress. Mexicans (and nationals of other countries) can do things specified by Congress to qualify for citizenship, but it is Congress who gives the citizenship to them. There are criteria for identifying US citizens, such as a birth certificate or a naturalization certificate. Even in the absence of such a certificate, there are ways that a person can demonstrate that he is a citizen (with a US passport, for example). But nobody earns US citizenship. It simply can't be done!
Anyone can lose US citizenship, of course. One can simply give it away and become a citizen of another country.
Catholics believe salvation is like that. It is a free gift of God. No one has a right to be saved, or can do anything, by himself, to gain his own salvation. Catholics maintain that salvation was gained for the human race by Jesus Christ, and that he established a Church to confer it upon all mankind. Jesus himself established the criteria of salvation, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." John 3:5. We believe that the best way to be "born of water and of the Spirit" is to partake of the sacrament of Baptism, Thus, if your mother took you to church and had you baptized as an infant, your salvation is a gift of Jesus, your mother, and their Church. You don't have to do anything to get it. Fact is, you might not know about it for several years. (I didn't!)
There are also other ways adults can be granted salvation (including being baptized as adults). Catholics believe that the desire to know God is built by Him into every human being, so that people come to know some kind of God, by their own intelligence. If they do what they truly believe is their responsibility to the God they know, Catholics believe that they are saved through the merits of Jesus, who is "the way, the truth, and the life," unless through whom no one comes to the Father." John 14:6 We call this "baptism of desire," by which Jesus, who died for everyone and desires that everyone be saved, manages to arrange that for people who are doing the best they can. There is also "baptism of blood," by which those who die for God, such as the Holy Innocents, the babies King Harod killed to eliminate Baby Jesus and the Church's earliest canonized saints, are saved as well. The babies didn't do anything to "take Jesus as their Savior," but he saved them anyway. People can thus do things specified by Jesus to qualify for salvation, but it is Jesus, who himself established the sacraments of his Church as the most reliable way, who gives it to them. "No one can come to the Father except by him."
Very few of my Christian friends (and, I assume, even fewer of my non-Christian ones) accept this statement as Jesus said it. They tell me that what it means is, "you must take Jesus as your Savior." The fact is, there isn't a single word common to both of those statements. We'll get to that a little bit later.
The criterion for identifying persons who have been saved is their rebirth "through water and the Spirit." Catholics believe that baptism confers new life, called "sanctifying grace," which is a participation in the life of God, and makes a person a new and different creature, one that is able to fully appreciate heaven. It also makes him a citizen of the Kingdom of God, in which he will (hopefully!) participate fully after he dies. Reception of sanctifying grace also marks the human spirit (soul) forever. Thus, someone who has been saved is identified forever as one who has become a child of God.
But salvation, once acquired, can be lost through sin. One simply gives it away in preference for slavery to evil. This is why Catholics are so involved in avoiding sin and doing things which they believe strengthen them against the forces of temptation. If they do commit serious sin, and lose their salvation, we believe that Jesus established a means by which the representatives of his Church are enabled (by him) to forgive the sinner and reestablish his citizenship in the Kingdom of God. John 20:23 We also believe, as do many other Christians and non-Christians, that God will forgive our sins if we are truly sorry for them and forgive others who have done evil against us.
Regarding Accepting Jesus Christ As Your Savior, Jesus said that he IS the way, the truth and the life, not that confessing that makes one his disciple. (In several of his letters to new Christians, St. Paul suggests that they need to acknowledge that, but not that everyone does. Paul was trying to counter an unhealthy emphasis among early Christians on their identity with their own mentors. Read 1 Corinthians 1:11-18.) Jesus himself suggested that accepting him as one's Savior is simply not enough, and it is certainly not enough to identify one as his disciple. Read Matthew 7:21-27. and John 13:35 again. Indeed, Jesus was very specific about how the saved would be separated from the damned, and he didn't say anything about accepting him as their Savior. I usually end the discussions on this topic by tapping the nearest Holy Bible and saying, "Show me." So far, I've had no takers.
Another argument I have heard that one must take Christ as his Savior to be saved is the statement "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16. This doesn't say one must do that either, but it does say that it's a good idea, which is why God "gave his only Son." John, of course, was writing to the early Christians, most of whom were already taking Christ as their Savior big time. He maintained that God did that so that "whoever believes" in His Son "should not perish." That's kind of like saying "whoever eats healthy should not get sick." John did not say that believers wouldn't perish if they continued being wicked sinners, and he also didn't say that other people (Jews and pagans) wouldn't have eternal life, only that being a Christian convert (like John himself was) was better.
It is natural to try to find in one's Scripture something that might, however vaguely, support something they they personally believe. The supposed necessity of "Taking Christ as your personal Savior" is referenced by some in I Corinthians 15:3; I John 5:13; I Peter 3:18-20; I Timothy 2:4; II Corinthians 11:14; II Thessalonians 1:7-8; II Timothy 3:1-7; Acts 2:1-47; Acts 17:30; Ephesians 2:8-9; Isaiah 59:2; James 2:10, 19; John 1:12, 3:1-36, 5:24, 6:37 and 8:44; Matthew 7:14; Romans 3:23, 5:1-21, 6:23 and 10:9-13, and possibly other places as well. But these passages all acctually support the assertion that Jesus IS your Savior, whether you believe that or not, and that believing it is a good idea, because what good is not believing something that it not only true, but also important to your eternal life?
So the assertion that only Christians can be saved is simply not Scriptural. The several passages might suggest (but do not specifically say) that, but that's interpretation, not Scripture. We interpret Scripture, too, and come to a different conclusion, one that puts far more trust in the ability and desire of Jesus to save everybody. (That's why we call ourselves "Catholics." "Catholic" means "for everybody.") On the other hand, there are Scriptural passages that say that there are other criteria. Specifically, Matthew 7:21, Matthew 25:31-46, and John 3:5. All of them apply to people who are old enough to make decisions and none of them says you have to Accept Jesus Christ As Your Savior. Do you suppose he just forgot about the babies, the Jews, the Buddhists, the Taoists, etc. etc. etc.? Really? Is that the kind of god you worship? Why?
I like to illustrate this point by handing my listener one of the dollar coins, usually an Eisenhower or a Susan B. Anthony dollar, I carry around for the purpose. Sometimes I just drop it into his pocket, occasionally without his even knowing. I tell him about it later. Now, the intrinsic value of any of the dollar bills or coins is actually a small fraction of a dollar. The face value of the coin, namely one dollar, is guaranteed by the US Mint. The value of paper money is guaranteed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The directors of both report to the Treasurer of the United States. I think it's safe to say that the Treasurer is the person responsible for the value of our money. (The Treasurer's signature is on every piece of paper currency.) People use money, spending it for things they buy and receiving it for things they sell, without even knowing who the Treasurer of the United States is! The fact is, they don't have to know! The fact of who the Treasurer is does not imply in any way that people who use money need to know that fact! The money users don't make the Treasurer of the United States responsible for the value of their money, the Senate does. Christians believe that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life." But Catholics do not claim that you have to know that! You don't make Jesus your Savior, He does, and Jesus desires that everybody is saved!
Catholics point out that the Jesus' assertion that he is "the way, the truth, and the life" was made specifically in response to a question by the Apostle Thomas. As an Apostle, it was important for Thomas, and perhaps the other Apostles, to understand this, but there is no indication whatever that everybody had to, especially those who would never even hear about Jesus and his teaching. It is, in fact, merely a statement of fact, the same as "This is the road to Damascus," "That path leads to the oasis," and "A lot of people are never going to have the opportunity to hear or understand what I am about to tell you!"
Another way to look at this whole "way, truth and life" business is illustrated by how my great grandparents got here from Austria and France, shortly after the US Civil War. At the time, the only way to get from Europe to the New World was by ship. Actually, it was the only way to get from anywhere to the New World. Nobody could some to America (either one) except by ship. You could start from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, or even Antarctica. You could make any stops along the way, including going back where you came from. But if you weren't born in the Americas, the only way you could get here in your entire life was to come here by ship, and that's the truth! Nobody came to America except by ship!
Accepting this truth wouldn't do a thing for you. It really didn't matter whether you took the ship as your personal means of transportation to the New World or not. You didn't make the ship your personal means of transportation, the shipping company did. All you had to do was get on the ship somewhere, and get off the ship in America. You could even jump or fall off the ship midway, but unless you subsequently got back on the ship (or swam ashore), if you were born somewhere else and ended up here, you did it by ship.
Actually, you didn't have to accept the ship as your way to America at all! Someone else (a parent, maybe?) might have put you on it to meet your long-lost European relatives when you got here. You didn't have to know where the ship was going, or even what the ship was! You didn't even have to be conscious! All you had to do was get on the ship somewhere and get off the ship in America. Acknowledging the ship as your way to America might have been nice, but it didn't do a thing to get you here. What was necessary and sufficent was actually to ride the ship, which was the only way to do that. Being here didn't prove that you had a ticket, or knew where the ship was going or even knew what the ship did. If you were a European (or Asian, or African, or Australian or resident of anyplace else not America) and you were here, you got here by ship!
Claiming that somebody can't be saved because he doesn't Take Jesus Christ As His Savior is as illogical as asserting that anybody who didn't own a ship couldn't get to the New World.
Very few, if any, of the people who came to America during that time built the ship, or provided the fuel, or sold the tickets or ran the ship. But everyone who got here was at one time on board. There may have been some people who believed that if you didn't Accept The Ship As Your Way to America you couldn't get here, but they would have been wrong. All one had to do was get on the ship, however they did that. It's just like salvation. We don't make Jesus our Savior, he does! There is only ONE Way, and Truth and Life. Not everybody knows who that is, but he's still it, and he wants all of them to be saved. The way to do that is not merely to accept him, you have to do what it takes!
That's why Catholics, like me, believe that "no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" means that every single Catholic who is ultimately saved comes to the Father through Jesus. Also every single Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Baptist, Unitarian, Methodist, Mormon, Christian Scientist, and nondenominational Christian. Also every single Muslim, Jew, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Taoist, Shinto, Seventh Day Adventist, Scientologist and Wiccan, just to name a few. If they get saved, it is through Jesus Christ, because that's what he does.
Christianity, of course, recognizes that salvation is available to the human race because of the merits of Jesus Christ. For Christians, Accepting Jesus Christ As Their Savior is a no-brainer, as indicated by Peter's testimony in John 6:68! What other choice is there, David Koresh? Warren Jeffs? Sun Myung Moon?
On the other hand, Scripture repeatedly documents that Jesus was asked by Jews what they had to do to gain eternal life, and he said absolutely nothing about taking him as their Savior. What he said was that they had to do what they had been taught by their religion (personally established by Almighty God Himself) to be their duty, which was to obey the commandments and love God and their neighbor. Check out Matthew 19:16, Mark 10:17, Luke 10:25 and Luke 18:18. Just in case they didn't understand the concept, Jesus told them the story about the Good Neighbor in Luke 10:30. That doesn't say anything about taking Jesus as your Savior, either. The assertion that everybody has to take Jesus as their Savior to gain eternal life just isn't Scriptural - or logical!
Christian "dollars" are like new bills, which have the signature of the Treasurer of the United States printed right on them. But there are other kinds of dollars too; Eisenhower, Susan B. Anthony, Sacajawaia, the new "President" dollars. And of course, there's change; four quarters, ten dimes; twenty nickels, a whole handful of pennies, and those 302 other combinations....
But, like salvation, they're all valid dollars. You can use any of them to buy the same value of goods. They all work the same way (and truth... and life...), and they're all guaranteed by the same Treasurer of the United States, who is the only one who has the authority to do that.
The dollars that I hand out are free gifts, just like salvation. I earned their value by doing my work as Jesus earned salvation by doing his. The recipients don't have to recite some magic incantation; they don't have to take anyone as their Treasurer; they don't even have to know they've got it. It's free! Once they receive it, of course, they can spend it, lose it, or throw it away. On the other hand, they can save it, protect it, invest it, show it to their friends, or keep it locked up in a safe. They can do what they want with it. It's theirs!
Of course, if they want to keep it, they'd do well to devote some time and effort do protecting it and avoiding misplacing it. Those little suckers are surprisingly easy to lose! A little girl to whom I gave one promptly dropped it and it rolled under a drink machine. Her father had a devil of a time (a little religious humor there, folks) getting it out of there! (One of the functions of parents, the direct personal representatives of God to their children, is protecting their salvation.)
Most of us don't know who the people are who are responsible for the major blessings of our lives. Who assisted your mother at your birth? Who made your childhood vaccines? Who built your grade school? Who was your fifth grade teacher? (Sister Mary Aloysius Gonzaga) Who invented fire? The wheel? Bread? Electricity? Soap? You do not have to know that who did these things for you. It is sufficient to benefit from them that they were done by somebody, somebody to whom you owe a great deal!
Mexicans accept US citizenship by doing what immigration laws require to become naturalized. Christians accept salvation by being baptized or by doing other things commanded by Christ as a certification of their love and devotion to him. Jews accept salvation by professing and practicing the faith given to them by God Himself, as certified by Jesus in Matthew 19:16, Mark 10:17, Luke 10:25 and Luke 18:18. Muslims and Buddhists and Easter Islanders accept salvation by doing what their religion, whatever it is, commands of them. But in each case, what they receive is still a free gift. In the case of salvation, it comes from a loving God who created mankind for the single purpose of being eternally happy, and who desires that ALL mankind, not just those whom He has deigned to become Christians, should be saved. He demonstrated this love by becoming one of us (a Jew) and dying on the Cross. Jesus himself was a Jew, not a Christian. He IS your personal Savior, whether you know that or not.
Those of us who survived the ravages of Hurricane Katrina understand absolutely that salvation does not involve choosing your Savior; it involves cooperating with whomever that person happens to be, doing what we are instructed to do, not necessarily what we want, in order to be saved.
Oh, and, by the way, the Treasurer of the United States, who made all our money worth what it was during that awful time was... Anna Escobedo Cabral.